If we get sound sleep during night, we get up fresh in morning. In today’s fast life, however, getting a sound sleep has become a rarity
Sleep is the best form of relaxation. That’s why those who sleep well always keep well and feel well. It’s true that if we get sound sleep during night, we get up fresh in morning. However, in today’s fast life, getting a sound sleep has become a rarity, as millions of people suffer from sleep disorders like insomnia, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, etc. Unfortunately, many of these individuals resort to sleeping pills and drugs which ultimately aggravate their problems. This is because we do not consider these as serious issues and avoid the fact that sleep disorders interfere with our body’s ability to recoup the energy needed for the next day. We usually make a huge mistake by regarding sleep merely as a time of inactivity for the body. In reality, during the hours of sleep, when we appear to be most passive, something within us is intensely active — recharging the body cells for the next day. One must not forget that when we are active throughout the day, we burnout energy; when we are seemingly inactive during night time, we regenerate it.
Sleep is regarded as one of the greatest remedies to overcome tiredness. It is so critical that it simply overtakes one when it’s needed by the body, hence it can be put off for a few hours or days but cannot be shunned altogether. Sleep is one of the nature’s greatest rejuvenators, as essential to life as air, water and food are. During sleep, human body is busy in activities like repair of tissues, healing/restocking of organs and cells with fuel, replacement of old cells with new ones, etc. These processes occur at a much higher rate while we are asleep as compared to the time when we are awake.
Medical science has acknowledged several causes that lead to sleep disorders. The biggest hindrance of all is bad mental health. Negative thinking and unrighteous activities during the day cause sleep disturbances during the night. Repeated suppression of the voice of one’s conscience impairs mental health, thus resulting in negative personality traits and even insomnia.
Another important factor that affects our sleep is the food we eat. It’s a proven fact that mental illness adversely affects one’s eating habit which, in turn, drastically influences our sleep and health. For instance, those who take several cups of tea, coffee and colas find it difficult to sleep properly. Under such a situation, proper meditation technique can be of great help, if practised regularly.
There have been a lot of debates over the hours of sleep that one should have. Doctors say that different conditions require different sleep timings. Under the best of conditions in terms of sleep, fresh air, water, food, physical work or exercise and positive influences, one would stay asleep as long as one’s system needs them to; then, one will wake up automatically. Some yogis, who are always under the stage of meditation, feel fine with even three to four hours of sleep, whereas others might need more. Also, our age, general physical health, work routine, environment and habitat play a key role in determining the hours of sleep we need.
The old adage — “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” — seems to fall on deaf ears in our times. In the whole hustle and bustle, we tend to forget that it is the quality of life that matters the most. Hence, if we jeopardise our sleep for silly reasons, we are knowingly undermining our health.
The writer is a spiritual educator